Lemuel

“ The sons' names were Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi. They also had daughters but their names are not told in the Book of Mormon.
The two older sons of Lehi, Laman and Lemuel, complained because their father left his house and land and all his riches and brought his family into the wilderness to die. They did not believe that Jerusalem would be destroyed; nor did they believe the Lord commanded him to leave Jerusalem for safety from the wicked people there. As they did not have faith in the Lord they were afraid they might die in the wilderness for want of food. ”

“ Returning from the war, Lemuel engaged in agriculture; but he had early been given a pious trend and soon decided to study theology in anticipation of the designs of Providence concerning him. For some time he had been accustomed to read the Bible and sermons of others on the occasions of conducting family prayers in the home of David Rose. ”

“ Then his captor—Lemuel Huntington—unhasped the barn door and herded him outside and down a narrow lane between two corrals, until they stood in the open field.
“Turn yore face to the moon, an’ let’s git a squint of you, Billy Gee,” said Lemuel. He studied the outlaw a few seconds. “So my gal was passin’ up ten thousand dollars for the likes of you, eh? Well, I won’t! Now, listen clost an’ don’t make no mistake about what I tell you! Me an’ you’s goin’ on into Geerusalem right off, see? Warburton wants you dead or ’live, an’ it’s up to you how you care to be deelivered to him. I don’t. Savvy! ”

“ And it came to pass that after my father had made an end of speaking to the sons and daughters of Laman, he caused the sons and daughters of Lemuel to be brought before him. And he spake unto them, saying: Behold, my sons and my daughters, which are the sons and the daughters of my second son; behold, I leave unto you the same blessing which I left unto the sons and daughters of Laman; wherefore, thou shalt not utterly be destroyed; but in the end, thy seed shall be blessed. ”

“ Giles’s had heard of Joseph Lemuel. His name had been in the penny newspapers. He was a man who was supposed to make a million of money every time there was war in Europe, and to lose a million whenever there was a financial crisis.
‘Do you know anything of this affair, Mr. Lemuel?’ the magistrate asked, with an off-hand friendliness, when the witness had been sworn, as much as to say, ‘It is really uncommonly good of you to trouble yourself about a fellow-creature’s fate ”

“ But Laman and Lemuel were so wicked at heart that they would not release Nephi. Their father talked with them, but this did not soften their hearts. Lehi and Sariah his wife were getting old, and the troubles caused them by their older sons made them very sick. Their two younger sons, Jacob and Joseph, who were born in the wilderness, were much in need of their mother's care, and were grieved because of her sickness. Nephi's wife and children cried and prayed for him to be released, but this had no effect upon Laman and Lemuel. Nothing but the power of God would move them. ”

“ The youngsters grouped about her, Lem cut off a fresh “chaw,” rubbed his hands and began. He stood with legs far apart, arms folded, an old sombrero pushed back on his head, a riding crop in hand, and an air of a king. Was he not a [Pg 95] free-born American citizen, as good as could be found in all the country? Lemuel adored his “Boss” but he had not learned the manners which that “Boss” would have approved in the presence of the Gray Lady; who, by the way, was never more truly the “Lady” than in her intercourse then, and always, with the toilers at San Leon. ”

“ Coming into a Christian family, let him have Christian baptism, I say."
"Oh, call him Arthur!"
"Bill!"
"Richard!"
"Charlie!"
"Reginald!" cried the children in chorus.
"I do love a Bible name!" said Mother Golden, pensively. "It gives a child a good start, so to say, and makes him think when he hears himself named, or ought so to do. All our own children has Bible names, father; don't let us cut the little stranger off from his privilege."
"But Bible names are so ugly!" objected Lemuel, who was sensitive, and suffered under his own cognomen. ”

“ It is not necessary to suppose that the poet himself lived under a native king; he may, like the author of Koheleth, have thrown himself back in imagination to Israel’s golden prime. His own period was late, judging from the unclassical Hebrew (notice the Aramaisms in vv. 2, 3, and the strange expressions in vv. 5, 8) . The form of the heading suggests that these ‘words of Lemuel’ formed part of the same collection as the ‘words of Agur;’ and there is at least nothing in the contents to forbid this view. ”

“ The Lord also said that Laman and Lemuel and their children should be cut off from His presence, that is He would not speak to them or give them revelations if they did not obey Him. Nephi did become the leader of the people, and the Lamanites were shut out from receiving revelations from the Lord on account of their wickedness, showing that the Lord's words were fulfilled. We see by this that the Lord is very particular to keep every promise He makes to His servants. We should also be very careful to keep our promises to one another and to our Heavenly Father. ”

“ In the beginning of their experience in the wilderness many things were viewed as afflictions and dreadful to bear which, after a few years of such life, they scarcely noticed; so easy is it for people, especially if sustained by the Spirit of the Lord and the knowledge that they are obeying His requirements, to accommodate themselves to new circumstances and conditions of life.
After all these preparations had been made in the valley of Lemuel, the voice of the Lord came to Lehi in the night, and commanded him to take his journey into the wilderness the next day. ”

“ Our father is dead; yea, and we have wandered much in the wilderness, and we have suffered much afflictions, hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and after all these sufferings, we must perish in the wilderness with hunger. And thus they did murmur against my father, and also against me; and they were desirous to return again to Jerusalem. And Laman saith unto Lemuel, and also unto the sons of Ishmael, Behold, let us slay our father, and also our brother Nephi, who hath taken it upon him to be our ruler and our teacher, who are his elder brethren. ”

“ Lemuel finished his second page, then sat back and fired his pipe. With a critical eye, he read what he had written:
Geerusalem, Aug. 29.
My own deares dorter: I jest got yore welcom leter an was orful glad to heer you bin doin so fine in skule. Lex Sangerly he tol me all about you givin him the $20,000. I allus knowed you was as hones as the day is long, sweethart, an I tol him so an he sed you sure was the fines gal he ever seen. An I sed they didn make em no better, an I was proud of you. You orter herd us. You sure wood a-bin stuck on yoreself. ”

“ An’ you see that you give him a deed, see, or—well, I’ll be back, you kin gamble on that!”
“But can’t you see, I got two full quarter sections, an’ cuttin’ off that strip’ll ruin ’em?” cried Lemuel, in desperation. “An’ there’s my poor, leetle gal tryin’ to git a edjucation, an’——”
“Miss Dot’ll manage fine an’ dandy, I reckon,” asserted the bandit. “I hear she’s livin’ with Mrs. Liggs, an’ I don’t know of a better woman in the world than her. Mind what I’m a-tellin’ you, Huntington! You give ol’ Tinnemaha Pete a quit-claim title to that there hill, an’ don’t lose no time doin’ it. ”

“ The first collection, it is admitted, was not the work of Solomon. These proverbs were composed [98] as late as 600 B.C. The second collection is presented as “The Proverbs of Solomon.” If any of Solomon’s proverbs exist they are contained in this collection. The third collection is anonymous. The fourth begins as follows: “These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out” (700 B.C.) . The fifth contains “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh.” The sixth, comprising the first nine verses of the last chapter, are “The words of King Lemuel.” ”

“ Forgetting her errand to the well, yea, even leaving her pitcher, she hastened to publish the glad news. Surely the Saviour “must needs go through Samaria,” on His way from Judea to Galilee, and His resting in the little alcove of Jacob’s well, for the moment sheltered from the glare of an Oriental midday sun, was more than a geographical “must.” It was the necessity of love laid upon His heart to meet and to help that woman who came with an empty stone pitcher to the well at the same hour of the day, but went away with a heart filled with “living water ... springing up into everlasting life.” ”

“ Isaiah, looking adown the ages to the coming of Christ’s Kingdom, likened it to waters breaking out in the wilderness and streams in the desert. For centuries there was no voice of prophet in Israel or revelation from God to His chosen people, when suddenly the long silence was broken. It was in the days of Herod the Great, when sin and misery had reached their climax, and when the yearning for Messiah’s appearance was more intensely felt than ever. ”

“ One thing she discovered that noonday, as she came out to draw water from Jacob’s ancient well, that the Man who laid open her inner life in such modest words and patient forbearance, was none other than the long-expected Messiah, and she was altogether too generous-minded to lock up the glad tidings in her heart, but at once, without commission or priestly authority, witnessed for Christ, published the glad tidings of salvation through the streets of Sychar, and brought her whole city to a knowledge of her Saviour. ”

“ Nor does Eliezer fail to offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for divine guidance. In this he set a worthy example to all who seek direction from God. He said, “I, being in the way, the Lord led me.” A free translation would be, “I used my own judgment as far as it would go, which was a long distance from a safe conclusion, and the Lord led me the rest of the way.”
Bethuel, when he saw the gifts and heard the words of Rebekah, hastened to the well and said to Eliezer, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels. ”

“ But, instead of their lives being literally required, they were redeemed by the blood of a lamb, and the Paschal lamb was offered instead of the life of the Hebrew, and that life was still regarded as wholly the Lord’s, given to Him in living consecration, of which the whole tribe of Levi was regarded as the type, and therefore it was separated unto the service of the Lord as a substitute for the lives of the first-born.
[105] In all this was clearly taught the lesson that what God required from His people was not a dead body, but a “living sacrifice.” ”

“ They had lived with Moses so long, and yet knew so little of his exalted position. As a brother he stood too near to them, and they themselves, with their self-consciousness, stood too much in their own light.
“And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle.” As Aaron saw the cloud lifting up and moving off, he must have been inwardly crushed at this punishment. The fires on his altar went out, the pillar of smoke no longer mounted up as a token of grace, the divine presence was withdrawn, and it was as if an interdict of Jehovah lay on the services of the Sanctuary. ”

“ The son of promise had grown to be a lad of sixteen or seventeen years of age, when the voice of the Lord called unto Abraham, saying, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” It would seem that this message came to Abraham while asleep—in a dream as we would say—and therefore all the more trying as such a revelation, under such circumstances might well be questioned. ”

“ No doubt there were others who lived clean, pure lives. Of this number was Lamech, the father of Noah, for he was comforted in the birth of his son, saying, he “shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” Surely such men must have had good mothers to train them, and good wives for companions. But nothing is said about these women that walked in White Raiment in that dark and sinful age, when “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth,” until Sarah, the fair wife of Abraham, is reached. ”

“ Like animated photography, all this dashed through the girl's mind in a trice when Lem expressed a wish that she would promise him something. And with it her cryptic avowal centralized and surged up strong within her. Taking a firm hold on her will, she raised her eyes full upon his supplicant figure suing before her. Lem looked, and acted like a man who had been stunned by a blow. He was confronted with a new and unexpected phase of her nature. As his own gaze met her eyes, he discerned the indelible lettering of some palpable, deep purpose. What strange alien agency had laid hold of her? ”

“ But in the midst of the glorious revelations the angel had made, strange to say, Zacharias had asked for some sign or confirmation of the glad tidings. The angel answered, “I am Gabriel” (the Might of God) “and, behold, thou shalt be dumb.” As faith is to be the chief condition of the new covenant, it was needful that the first manifestation of unbelief should be emphatically punished, but the wound inflicted becomes a healing medicine to the soul. The aged priest was constrained to much silent reflection, and, according to the counsel of God, the secret was still kept for a time. ”